As Eden Hazard blossomed into one of the most dominant soccer players in the world, he admits he still occasionally found time to play FIFA, the popular video game, with friends and teammates.

Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta is pretty good at the game, Hazard said. So is Romelu Lukaku. He’s not sure who plays FIFA on his new team, Real Madrid, but countryman Thibau Courtois has told Hazard that he’s good. “So probably him,” Hazard said.

The 28-year-old winger admits he doesn't have much time to play FIFA these days. He’s been a bit busy, after all. Over the past two months, Hazard has helped lead Chelsea to a Europa League title and engineered a ballyhooed move to Real Madrid. He's been adjusting to life in a new country, in a new league, with new teammates — and a manager, Zinedine Zidane, who just so happens to be his childhood idol.

But that doesn't make it any less special to be on the cover of the 2020 iteration of the game, which will be released in September.

“For a football player, it’s like a dream,” Hazard, who shared the cover with Lionel Messi in 2015, told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “Because you know when you play football, you just play FIFA. … It’s something I’m very proud of.”

Hazard has been traveling around the United States this week for the International Champions Cup -- a series of friendlies between top European clubs on American soil. He made his Real Madrid debut against German team Bayern Munich in Houston on Saturday, and was set to face Spanish team Atletico Madrid at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Friday night.

“When we go (here), you can see a lot of people that are crazy about soccer,” Hazard said, when asked about the growth of the sport in the U.S. “But you know, it takes time. I believe it’s the best sport in the world, so I think soon, it’s going to be the best sport in the U.S.”

Hazard is still settling in with his new team after spending the past seven years with English Premier League team Chelsea. He scored 110 goals while building his reputation as one of the most creative, dangerous wingers in the world. Real Madrid paid roughly $111 million to acquire him this summer, according to multiple reports.

Hazard said he is excited to play in La Liga, where he believes the style of the game fits his own. And he has loved working with manager Zinedine Zidane, who has long been his idol. One of Hazard’s first memories in soccer is watching Zidane lead France to the 1998 World Cup title. A Spanish newspaper printed a photo of Hazard and his brothers, Thorgan and Kylian, wearing Zidane’s No. 10 jersey as children.

“I’d go in the garden, try to do (his) skills. But you can’t learn it because it’s too good,” Hazard said. “When you start to look on the internet, you watch videos of him, and that became inspiration, not just for me but for my family. … I can learn a lot from him (at Real Madrid), so I hope to be a better player.”

It was Zidane, in fact, who all but forecasted Hazard’s move to Real Madrid a decade ago. At an awards ceremony in 2009, when Hazard was a talented but largely-unknown winger playing for French team Lille, Zidane told a reporter that he was so confident the 18-year-old would be a star that he would sign him to Real Madrid “with my eyes closed.”

Now, exactly 10 years later, Zidane finally acquired the player he’s long sought -- and Hazard finally has a chance to play for his childhood idol

“It’s a new era, with new players, but you can see the team is focused,” Hazard said. “(Zidane) just wants to win as a manager, we just want to win as players. So I think the chemistry is going to be good.”